{"id":158400,"date":"2025-06-24T22:09:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T02:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/?page_id=158400"},"modified":"2025-11-06T10:25:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:25:25","slug":"ai-api-access","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/collaboration\/conversational-ai\/ai-api-access\/","title":{"rendered":"AI API Access"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\" bu-callout alignright\"><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"tw icon-mapmarker\"><\/span> Quick Start<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Available to:<\/strong> Faculty, Researchers, Staff, Departments<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>See <a href=\"#GettingStarted\">Getting Started<\/a>, below.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href='https:\/\/bu.service-now.com\/sp?id=sc_cat_item&amp;sys_id=c887bb8347362e90661a527a516d4326&amp;sysparm_category=76982ec7dba80e90d9a13fd3e2961980&amp;catalog_id=-1' class='btn btn-green btn-more'>Request an API Key<\/a><br \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>IS&amp;T can provide faculty, staff, researchers, and departments with access to Large Language Model (LLM) API keys for use in academic and research tasks.<span> If you are interested in LLM access for administrative tasks, please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/contact\/\">contact us<\/a> first to discuss resources that might already be available. This service offers keys for popular AI models through <\/span>Microsoft Azure OpenAI and Amazon Bedrock<span>, enabling the BU community to leverage cutting-edge generative AI capabilities in a secure, compliant, and convenient manner.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Benefits<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Strong Data Protection:<\/strong> The service ensures your data remains confidential and secure under BU\u2019s existing vendor agreements. Any prompts or results you send <strong>are not shared externally or used to train the providers\u2019 models<\/strong>. All LLMs offered through this service are authorized for data up to <strong>Confidential<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Centralized Billing through IS&amp;T:<\/strong> All API usage costs are consolidated on a central BU account. Your department\u2019s usage will be tracked and billed internally. Budgeting alerts and notifications can be set based on project requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Key Features<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Wide Range of AI Models:<\/strong> You get <strong>access to leading frontier models, <\/strong>including those from OpenAI and Anthropic, and can choose the appropriate model based on requirements and budget for your project.<\/li>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Scalable, Fully Managed Infrastructure:<\/strong> The LLM services are cloud-hosted, so you don\u2019t have to set up or maintain any servers yourself.<\/li>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Easy Integration &amp; Developer Tools:<\/strong> You can interact with these models using <strong>standard APIs and libraries<\/strong>, making it straightforward to incorporate into your applications, websites, or research workflows. In short, if you can call a REST API or use an SDK in languages like Python or Java, you can use these LLM APIs. IS&amp;T will also provide documentation and guidance to help you get started with calling the APIs and handling keys.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Requirements<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\">This service is available to <strong>Boston University faculty, researchers, and sponsored departments\/projects<\/strong>. (At this time, it is not intended for students or external users.)<\/li>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Departmental Financial Approval:<\/strong> A <strong>department financial administrator\u2019s approval is required<\/strong> to request an LLM API key. This ensures your department is aware of and agrees to cover the cloud usage costs associated with the API. Typically, you should coordinate with your department\u2019s financial administrator or budget manager before requesting access.<\/li>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Appropriate Use Compliance:<\/strong> Users must agree to use these APIs in accordance with all applicable usage policies, data guidelines, and ethical rules set by the university and the vendors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Getting Started<\/h2>\n<div class=\"paragraph-in-scc-markdown-text ___1ngh792 ftgm304 f1iaxwol\">To get started with obtaining an LLM API key, please follow these general steps.<\/div>\n<ol>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Obtain Department Approval:<\/strong> First, discuss your intent to use the LLM API service with your department\u2019s financial administrator. Ensure that you have their approval and backing, as they will need to provide an internal billing account or budget number. It\u2019s also a good idea to clarify your anticipated usage (e.g. which model and how intensively you plan to use it) so everyone is aware of potential costs.<\/li>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Submit the Request Form:<\/strong> Fill out the <a href=\"https:\/\/bu.service-now.com\/sp?id=sc_cat_item&amp;sys_id=c887bb8347362e90661a527a516d4326&amp;sysparm_category=76982ec7dba80e90d9a13fd3e2961980&amp;catalog_id=-1\"><strong>AI API Key Request Form<\/strong><\/a> to formally request access.\u00a0On the form, you\u2019ll need to provide information such as the intended use case for the API, and confirmation of financial approval (e.g. entering the approving administrator\u2019s name or uploading an approval email). Once submitted, the request will go to IS&amp;T for review.<\/li>\n<li class=\"___ccc16d0 fje8fi8 f1ng9h0j f1bwykku f18jd3zf\"><strong>Provisioning and Access:<\/strong> After your request is reviewed and approved by IS&amp;T, the team will provision the necessary API key(s) or credentials for you. You will receive instructions on how to access the keys (for example, you might get an Azure OpenAI key, an AWS Bedrock access configuration, or both, depending on what you requested). IS&amp;T will also provide any available documentation on using the keys, including endpoint URLs, example code, and best practices for managing your API usage. At this point, you can integrate the keys into your applications or research scripts and begin making calls to the LLM services.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"paragraph-in-scc-markdown-text ___1ngh792 ftgm304 f1iaxwol\">\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Need Help?<\/strong> For assistance, you can contact the IT Help Center at 617-353-HELP (4357) or email <a href=\"mailto:ithelp@bu.edu\">ithelp@bu.edu<\/a> for support.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IS&amp;T can provide faculty, staff, researchers, and departments with access to Large Language Model (LLM) API keys for use in academic and research tasks. If you are interested in LLM access for administrative tasks, please contact us first to discuss resources that might already be available. This service offers keys for popular AI models through&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2232,"featured_media":0,"parent":156684,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/158400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158400"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/158400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160228,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/158400\/revisions\/160228"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/156684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}